
T'GSl 



Class 

Book. J, J>< i^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A Complete 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

— of— 

General William Henry Harrison Beadle 



-by- 



O. W. Coursey 
Author of 

'History and Geography of the Philippine Islands" 

"The Woman ¥/ith a Stone Heart" 

"Who's Who In South Dakota" 

"School Law Digest" 



All of these books are published and are for sale by 

THE EDUCATOR SUPPLY COMPANY 

Mitchell, South Dakota 



COPYRIGHTED 

1913 

By 0. W. COURSEY 



^ 



JAN 29 1914 

©C1.A363S9? 



DEDICATED 

To The Madison (S. D.) State Normal 
School, of which General Beadle was so 
long President. 

— 0. W. COURSEY. 



GENERAL BEADLE 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page 

General Beadle 9 

Birth and Ancestry 9 

Boyhood 17 

Education 20 

In The War 22 

Practiced Law 23 

Comes To Dakota 24 

Saved Our School Lands 29 

Honored by School Children 40 

Unveiling Statue 49 

Personal 57 

Laying Corner Stone, State Capitol 58 



INTRODUCTION 

The Leaders of today become the His- 
torical Characters of tomorrow. However, 
conditions are changing. The Present is 
rapidly breaking away from the Past, so that 
today one is no longer considered sacrile- 
gious or unethical if he writes a man's biog- 
raphy while yet the man is alive, or pays to 
him other forms of homage before it is too 
late. 

Just so with General William Henry Har- 
rison Beadle, of our own state. He is one 
of the few men who lived to see his own 
statue erected. As Gladstone became to 
England her "Grand Old Man," so General 
Beadle has become to South Dakota. As one 
of our early empire builders, he stands at 
the top. His foresight in helping to shape 
the destiny of our commonwealth reveals 
alike the character and statesmanship of the 
man. 

The history of our state could not pos- 
sibly be complete without a record of his in- 



dividual achievments ; neither could our lit- 
erature be complete without a treatise on 
his life. Hence, this book. 

Grateful acknowledgement is hereby 
made to Hon. Doane Robinson, our state 
historian, for invaluable assistance given in 
furnishing state documents with which to 
complete this work, and for supplying pho- 
tos from which to make the cuts. 

— o. w. c. 



SOUTH DAKOTA'S 




GRAND OLD MAN 



BIOGRAPHY 



— of— 



GEN. W. H. H. BEADLE 

The most conspicuous citizen that South 
Dakota has as yet developed, either by adop- 
tion or by birth within her borders, is Gren- 
eral William Henry Harrison Beadle, of 
Madison, our territorial superintendent of 
public instruction, the "saviour of our school 
lands" ; and commonly known as South Da- 
kota's "Grand Old Man." 

BIRTH AND ANCESTRY 
In order that his years might be full 
rounded. Providence brought him into be- 
ing on the first day of January (1838). At 



10 BIOGRAPHY OF 



the time of this writing, November 21, 1913, 
he is seventy-five years of age, and still rug- 
ged and mentally alert. Think of it! Sev- 
enty-five years — ^three-quarters of a century. 
That is a long time. When he was bom, 
Martin Van Buren was president of the Unit- 
ed States. One of the signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence was still alive. 
Bryant, the poet, was but forty-five years of 
age; Whittier and Longfellow were each 
thirty-one ; Lowell was but nineteen ; Emer- 
son, thirty-five ; while Holmes and Abe Lin- 
coln were each young men of but twenty- 
nine. 

What a change has occurred since then ! 
Bryant has laid away forever the pen that 
wrote "Thanatopsis" and now 

"The oak shall send forth his roots 
To penetrate (his) mould." 

The poet bard of New England (Whit- 
tier) who gave to us such exquisite charac- 
terters as "Barbara Frietchie" and "Maud 
Muller,*' and who criticised Daniel Webster 
as follows : 



GENERAL BEADLE 11 



"So fallen! so lost! The light with- 
drawn 
Which once he wore, 
The glory from his gray hairs 
Gone for evermore," 
now lies in calm repose but a short distance 
from Dan's grave. 

The force that drew Miles Standish to 
Priscilla remains the domineering force of 
earth and heaven, while he who conceived 
the dainty love story that today echoes and 
re-echoes through our halls of elecution 
(Longfellow) has gone ahead to prove that 
"Life is real, life is earnest. 

And the grave is not its goal ; 
*Dust thou art, to dust returnest' 
Was not spoken of the soul." 
That classic literary son (Lowell) who 
wrote : 

"I only ask that heaven send 
A little more than I shall spend." 
and whose 

"Wants (were) few while here below," 
has found the "Holy Grail" and gone for- 



12 BIOGRAPHY OF 



ward to spend his soul's riches in and end- 
less chain of delight. 

The poet, wit, satirist, essayist, lecturer 
and physician of Cambridge, has extricated 
himself from his clay encasement and left 
"(His) own outgrown shell 
By life's unresting sea," 
while he who 

"(Penned) the shot heard round 
the world" 
(Emerson), weary of the day's toil, has lain 
down, like Bryant, 

"With the kings and queens of 
the inafnt world". 
The negroes have been freed, and each 
year thousands of people make pious pil- 
grimages to a marble vault at Springfield to 
pay hoamge to that homely, but kind-heart- 
ed, backwoods lawyer of Illinois, who de- 
creed the Emancipation Proclamation. 

All have come and gone; but General 
Beadle is with us still. When he was bom, 
from the western boundary of Louisiana to 
the Pacific ocean and from the Rio Grande 



GENERAL BEADLE 13 



to the southern boundary of Oregon, that 
entire south-west country, belonged to Old 
Mexico. Only a few Americans had ever 
heard of the Phillippine Islands. None had 
ever contemplated cutting the western conti- 
nent in two, so that beneath the roots of 
the tree into which Balboa climbed when he 
discovered the Pacific ocean, ships would, in 
Beadle's day, be riding from ocean to ocean 
on an artificial stream, (the Panama Canal) . 
There were no railroads tying together 
two oceans with arms of steel, no steel bridg- 
es spanning the bosoms of treacherous 
streams; no huge tunnels beneath the stony 
feet of the snow-capped gods of the infant 
world ; no improved machinery to lighten the 
work of the farm; no sewing machine or 
gas range to relieve the monotony of house- 
hold duties; no telegraph or cable to 
intermix instantaneously the intelligence of 
the world ; no telephone to transmit to us the 
very accents of the voices of loved ones far 
removed ; no wireless system to enable us to 
hear our English neighbors when they shout 



14 BIOGRAPHY OF 



at US across an ocean's breadth ; that mighty- 
wizard, electricity, had never been harnessed 
and forced into service ; in fact, to a modem 
boy things of that day would now seem pret- 
ty dull. 

Surely ! We will all unite in congratulat- 
ing General Beadle on the age of achievement 
which he has lived to witness. 

He was born in the rugged new west, 
in a forest region where great oaks, walnut 
and poplars grew, near the Wabash river, 
the route for nearly all the commerce of 
the early days ; when the houses were mostly 
of logs and all the life around him was act- 
ive and vigorous ; drank from the cool, clear 
springs with a limestone element in them to 
develope bones and stature, and used to labor 
to the extent of his physical powers; and, 
observing the ambitious efforts of his enter- 
prising father and mother, his life was 
shaped for execution and success. Such 
were the enviroments and stimulating con- 
ditions that life in boyhood and manhood 
gave to General Beadle, and prepared him 



GENERAL BEADLE 15 



for his great service to the territory of Da- 
kota and to the state of South Dakota. 

His father, James Ward Beadle, was 
bom in Kentucky, fifteen miles above Louis- 
ville, near the Ohio river, of ancestory that 
had landed very early at Salem, Massachu- 
setts, in colonial days, and passed in succes- 
sive generations through Connecticut, Penn- 
sylvania and the Shenandoah valley in Vir- 
ginia, to Kentucky. It was a series of strug- 
gles, trials and hard labor. His mother, 
Elizabeth Bright, was born in St. Mary's 
county, Maryland, near the lower Potomac, 
and of the second generation after her grand- 
father, James Bright, had sailed from near 
Aberdeen, Scotland, for America. He was a 
"braw" Scot, as was John Bright, her father. 
The family was given to the sea, and John 
Bright continued it on the Chesapeake, Po- 
tomac and James, till the destructive effect 
of the war of 1912-15 in all that region \'€l% 
forced them to seek a new home in Kentucky. 
Traveling in 1816 in wagons, on foot and on 
horseback, his mother was ferried across 



16 BIOGRAPHY OF 



the Potomac by Harper the original ferry- 
man, who gave the name to the later histor- 
ic village, Harper's Ferry. 

The Beadles and Brights became near 
neighbors; and there. General Beadle's par- 
ents were married, after the father had 
made two or three trips with fiatboats, load- 
ed with produce, to New Orleans. They moved 
to western Indiana, and the father who was 
a master hand with the broadaxe, built with 
his own hands a common, but comfortable, 
hewed log house near the north-west corner 
of Parke County, and in that William was 
born, the fourth child and first son of the 
family. The old house is still standing, and 
I am pleased to show a picture of it herewith. 

The woods were close about the home, 
and the deer, wild turkeys, squirrels and 
pheasants were abundant in them. The life 
was simple, the food plain but good, and the 
clothing was spun, woven and made by his 
mother. 




BEADLE'S BIRTHPLACE 
Parke County, Ind, 



GENERAL BEADLE 17 



BOYHOOD 

His life was that of a farmer boy, work- 
ing with axe and hoe and plow. When too 
young to handle a heavy plow, he walked be- 
side the oxen with whip in hand, quickening 
their pace, or rode and guided the big gray 
horse, while an older boy who had been hired 
held the plow. He early learned to trap, to 
hunt and to fish, and carried home many a 
fine string of black bass and other fish from 
the Wabash and its confluents. The boy 
went barefoot to school in the log-house un- 
der a master, who conducted a subscription 
school. And he learned to read, and read 
many good books, beginning with Robinson 
Crusoe and the Peter Parley stories of Amer- 
ica, Europe and Asia. While his mother 
was spinning with the big wheel he sat close 
by working out the first story mentioned, 
and when he came to a new and difficult word, 
his mother stopped and pronounced it and 
gave its meaning. He read in the evening 



18 BIOGRAPHY OF 



before the log fire, and when neighbors came 
in he listened to their stories of Kentucky, 
Virginia and Maryland ; how his mother saw 
the British army and fleet on its way to at- > 
tack Baltimore when her father was a sol- j^ji?' 
dier in the Maryland militia. The father 
had stories told to the boy by Kentucky rifle- 
men who went to New Orleans and helped 
Jackson to defeat General Packenham and 
his veteran soldiers. One old soldier told 
of his Niagra campaign under Scott. 

But nothing compared with the flat- 
boat and the trip made to New Orleans and 
the return on the steam-boat. He saw the 
boats built, loaded and float away on the 
spring rise of the Wabash, with his father 
standing as captain on the deck. The father 
returned late in May, wearing a spring suit 
and a Panama hat, always bringing some 
new books for the children to read. There 
were only classic books in the good old days. 
He went to church in plain clothes and 
walked two or three miles to a half -Quaker 
Sunday School. Later the township in which 




BEADLE IN 1857 
When He Entered College 



GENERAL BEADLE 19 



he then lived had a public library, and every 
Saturday evening he got a new book from it. 
He read Pope's translation of Homer, Scott's 
Ivanhoe, and the Conquest of Mexico, and 
of Peru, and many more, yes, even many of 
Burn's poems, when but twelve or thirteen 
years old. 



20 BIOGRAPHY OF 



EDUCATION 

Near the close of his 'teens, his father 
said to him : "William, you have been an ex- 
cellent boy. All through these trying years 
of pioneer life, you have worked uncomplain- 
ingly from early till late. I haven't any 
ready cash for you, but I will give you a 
240-acre farm; you can soon marry, settle 
down and develop it for yourself." 

"For quite a while, father," said the lad, 
"I have been thinking that I ought to have 
a college education. I am convinced in my 
own mind that such a preparation for life 
will be a better investment than to possess 
a farm. So if you will pay my way through 
the University of Michigan, I will gladly let 
you keep the farm." 

The father meditated ; then, he respond- 
ed: "I think you are right, William; and 
while it may be somewhat of a hardship for 
us to get along without you, you may go." 

The young fellow got along well in his 




In 



BEADLE IN 1860 
His Senior College Year 



GENERAL BEADLE 21 



college work. The course of reading which 
he had pursued while a boy had broadened 
his mind and had laid within it the founda- 
tion for deep study and careful reflection. 
He made his grades easily and was one of 
the leaders among the student body of the 
institution. 

In June, 1861, this country lad from the 
"banks of the Wabash", stepped out of his 
chosen college with his Bachelor of Arts 
diploma under his arm — a finished product 
ready and willing for the struggle of a pro- 
fessional career. His Alma Mater, in 1864, 
granted him his Master^s degree, and, in 
1867, conferred upon him his LL. B., and in 
1902 his LL. D. 



22 BIOGRAPHY OF 



IN THE WAR 

Like thousands of others born in the 
30's and early 40's, young Beadle had his 
life's work broken into by that awful strug- 
gle for the preservation of the Union — the 
Civil War. Only one month after leaving 
college, he responded to his country's call, 
enlisted and was commissioned a first lieu- 
tenant by Abraham Lincoln with whom he 
later formed an intimate personal acquaint- 
ance and whose remains he accompanied 
part of the way across the country, as one 
of the guard of honor, after the president's 
untimely assassination by Booth. 

He was later commissioned captain of 
Company A, Thirty-first Indiana volunteers, 
and finally promoted to lieutenant-colonel, 
First Michigan sharp shooters. For "gal- 
lant and meritorious conduct in action", 
Lincoln made him a colonel by brevet, and 
later brevetted him a brigadier-general. 
His military record is without a blemish. 
On the other hand, it abounds with acts of 
conspicuous daring and leadership. 



I 




GENERAL BEADLE 
Photo in 1864 



GENERAL BEADLE 23 



PRACTICED LAW. 

After the war, General Beadle began 
the practice of law at Evansville, Indania, 
in 1867. Finding the field largely occupied 
by older attorneys and not offering to him 
the advantages desired, he removed the next 
year to Boscobel, Wisconsin, where he prac- 
ticed successfully for nearly two years. 

While in college General Beadle had 
specialized in civil engineering. When, 
after the close of the war, the tide of migra- 
tion moved westward with a spasm, it be- 
came necessary to have the Dakota terri- 
tory surveyed. Many politicians sought the 
appointment of surveyor-general for the dis- 
trict ; but that uncompromising soldier. Gen- 
eral Ulysses S. Grant, who had already as- 
cended to the presidency of the nation, re- 
mained firm in his abiding conviction that 
where circumstances were equal, a soldier is 
entitled to preference, and in March, 1869,^ 
he and Gen. J. D. Cox, Secretary of the In- 
terior, appointed General William H. H. 
Beadle to the position. 



24 BIOGRAPHY OF 



COMES TO DAKOTA 

Upon receipt of his commission as sur- 
veyor-general, from President Grant, he and 
his family removed at once to Dakota and 
settled at Yankton, the territorial capital. 
The trip from Sioux City to Yankton was 
made overland late in April. Although it 
took but two days to make the drive, yet the 
journey up the Missouri bottom was accom- 
panied by many hardships. 

He promptly began his work as survey- 
or-general. It gave to him the opportunity 
of a life-time. He equalled the opportunity. 

His experiences in roaming around over 
a sparsely settled new country, — the home of 
numerous bands of hostile Indians; fording 
streams and withstanding storms, are filled 
with many thrilling incidents. The follow- 
ing interesting account of one of his exper- 
iences, as set forth by him in his "Memoirs," 
suggests to the reader many others of a sim- 
ilar character: 



GENERAL BEADLE 25 



"Interesting things occurred as the sur- 
veys extended. Going up the west side of 
the Dakota river in June, 1873, with, I be- 
lieve, the first party to traverse its nearly en- 
tire length, we were surprised, some thirty 
miles above where Huron is, to find a con- 
siderable river flowing from the west and 
apparently a small one coming beyond it 
from the north, and we had to travel west 
some ten miles or more to the abrupt land 
where Redfield lies. That and similar feat- 
ures in many parts were lacking upon our 
previous maps. And it seemed double 
trouble the next morning, when midway be- 
tween the mouths of Turtle and Snake 
creeks, that a band of Yanktonais Indians 
under Drifting Gosse crossed the Dakota 
from their summer tepees on the east side, 
halted us, demanded that we leave with them 
all we had and return whence we came. 
There were 130 or 140 of them, men and 
women, in blankets, no weapons visible. The 
women began to sing a weird cry, men caught 
our front horses by their bridles and another 



26 BIOGRAPHY OF 



began to unhitch the tugs. We were all 
armed, seven of us. I had a double-barrelled 
shot gun and a pocket full of buckshot shells. 
Pointing my gun a moment at others to drive 
them back, I handed my gun to the driver, 
caught the Indian by the arm and shoulder, 
and with a tremendous effort whirled him 
around and away. Quickly rehitching the 
tug I took my gun, pulled back both hammers 
and held it to my shoulder, pointing it at 
the nearest; then laying one hand upon the 
hook of the tug I warned them back and 
held up my gun again. The men, other than 
the drivers, stood along before the wagons, 
and all had guns or revolvers in hand. My 
men perfectly understood that under no pro- 
vocation were they to fire until after I did. 
The declaration of hostilities was in my 
hands. Fortunately, the Indians gave way 
somewhat and did not disclose their weapons 
that were under their blankets, though they 
were probably not nuemrous. Speaking to 
the teams to start, we formed behind them 
and walked backwards some distance, hold- 




BEADLE IN 1881 
Territorial Supt. of Public Inst. 



GENERAL BEADLE 27 



ing our guns at 'ready'. There had been a 
little conference at first and some presents 
of food and tobacco offered and dropped on 
the ground for the Indians. We could not 
afford to fight ; one wounded man would dis- 
able us. We had no desire to harm the In- 
dians, and had not been sent as missionaries 
to them." 

In 1876, he wrote the "Codes of Dako- 
ta"; was elected the next year to the terri- 
torial legislature, and secured their adoption. 
His surveying work having been completed, 
a comprehensive code — ^the product of his 
own brain and pen — having been enacted, 
the territorial governor, in 1879, appoint- 
ed him territorial superintendent of public 
instruction. He held this position until 
1885. When Dakota was divided and the 
state was admitted to the Union in 1889, 
General Beadle was, without knowledge or 
effort on his part, appointed president of 
the state normal school at Madison, South 
Dakota, the oldest normal in the state. This 
position he held for sixteen consecutive 



28 BIOGRAPHY OF 



years, until advanced age forced him to re- 
linquish his broader field of duties to a 
younger man, Dr. John W. Heston ; while he, 
in turn, confined himself to the chair of his- 
tory, until advanced years recently forced 
him to give up school work entirely. 

During these eventful years, General 
Beadle prepared and left to us as a lasting 
heritage, not only his "Codes of Dakota", 
but three other volumes: "Life in Utah," 
"Geography, History and Resources of Da- 
kota," and the "Natural Method of Teach- 
ing Geography." 



GENERAL BEADLE 29 



SAVED OUR SCHOOL LANDS. 

But by far (General Beadle's greatest 
service to the people of our state at large was 
his foresight, statesmanship and perseverance 
displayed in the preservation of our school 
lands — ^the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sec- 
tions of each township. 

Having watched similar lands secured 
for mere nothing by land sharks in Other 
states, Beadle resolved that if it lay within 
his power, their acts should not be repeated 
in Dakota. Accordingly, he wrote that mas- 
terful section of our costitution. Article 
VIII, entitled "Education and School Lands", 
which provides that none of this land shall 
ever be sold for less than $10 per acre, and 
which has since been embodied almost ver- 
batim in the constitution of several other 
states. It follows, in part: 
"Section 4, Par. 2: The commissioner of 
school and public lands, the state auditor and 
the county superintendent of schools of the 



30 BIOGRAPHY OF 

counties severally, shall constitute boards of 
appraisal and shall appraise all school 
lands within the several counties which they 
may from time to time select and designate 
for sale at their actual value under the terms 
of sale. 

Section 5' (1st. sentence only) : No land shall 
be sold for less than the appraised value, 
and in no case for less than Ten Dollars an 
acre. 

Section 11: The moneys of the permanent 
school, and other educational funds, shall be 
invested only in first mortgages upon good 
improved farm lands within the State as 
hereinafter provided, or in bonds of school 
corporations within the State, in bonds of 
the United States or of the State of South 
Dakota or of any organized county, township 
or incorporated city of said state. 
Section 11, (Continued) : The amount of 
each loan shall not exceed one-third the 
actual value of the lands covered by the mort- 



GENERAL BEADLE 31 



gage given to secure the same, such value to 
be determined by the board of county com- 
missioners of the county in which the land 
is situated, and in no case shall more than 
five thousand ($5,000) dollars be loaned to 
any one person, firm, or corporation, and 
the rate of interest shall not be less than 
five per centum per anum, and shall be such 
other and higher rate, as the legislature may 
provide, and shall be payable semi-annually 
on the first of January and July." 

His hand wrote the foregoing consti- 
tutional provisions. He was therefore the 
originator of the policy and the creator of 
the plan that made education, the saving of 
school lands and the permanent scurity of 
the school funds, the central feature of our 
statehood movement. 

At the same time his work greatly in- 
fluenced North Dakota, then with us, a part 
of Dakota Territory, though it was in the 
statehood movement and constitution making 
for South Dakota that General Beadle's most 
distinguished service was rendered and his 



32 BIOGRAPHY OF 



great victory won. So profound was the 
impression then made by this policy upon 
Congress and its committees and individu- 
al members, that it was applied to all other 
states subsequently admitted to the Union. 
Indeed the states of North Dakota, Montana, 
Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and Oklahoma 
might also place tablets to his memory in 
their capitols, as did South Dakota. 

There were other good and able men as- 
sociated with him in this movement, but 
they all recognized Beadle as its sole orig- 
inator, long its sole advocate and its real 
leader. In fact now that the political am- 
bitions and the struggles for office have faded 
into inconsequence with the passage of a 
quarter of a century, Beadle stands as the 
real leader of the statehood movement, the 
man whose universal acquaintance with the 
people, whose unselfish ideas and great la- 
bors laid the foundation on which the others 
built. He it was who, as a conidtion of his 
acceptance of the office of superintendent 
of public instruction, placed these ideas in 



GENERAL BEADLE 33 



the mind of Governor William A. Howard, 
in 1878. He was the intimate friend of Rev* 
Joseph Ward, and from the latter secured 
the first approval and effective support of 
his plans. As an intimate friend of General 
Hugh J. Campbell, he communicated with 
him and convinced him of the merit of the 
entire plan. These four men originated the 
final and successful statehood movement. 
But there were others all over the proposed 
state, able and excellent men, of all crafts, 
trades, creeds and professions, who had been 
already convinced and who united to labor 
faithfully for the great object. 

General Beadle had been for years ad- 
vocating his chief purpose and had already 
secured many followers for the doctrine that 
the school and endowment lands should be 
appraised and should be sold at public auc- 
tion "for not less than ten dollars an acre". 
As superintendent of public instruction, he 
had often visited every settled part of the 
state and repeatedly addressed audiences up- 
on the subject. In his entire scheme he had 



34 BIOGRAPHY OF 



earnest supporters for his proposition and 
they were persuading others, or at least se- 
curing their assent, to the trial of the plan. 
The membership of the convention of 1885 
that made the constitution was of both class- 
es and some were directly opposed to the 
plan, claiming that the people wanted im- 
mediate relief from heavy school taxes. He 
argued that quicker and greater relief would 
come by what they called the higher price and 
limitations. Some of the moderators or op- 
ponents begged him to redraw the article he 
had prepared for the committee upon his 
plan (as it went into the Constitution) and 
to prepare it as carefully upon their plan 
which they said would be immediately ac- 
cepted and adopted. This he refused abso- 
lutely to entertain. 

The Committee on "Education and the 
School Lands" had just two men who were 
strong supporters of the Beadle plan. One 
was Rev. James H. Moore, of Beadle county, 
a capable, able and most sincere minister 
of the M. E. Church, who aided the state- 



GENERAL BEADLE 35 



hood movement to secure for the people a 
pure, economical and useful government. 
He was a strenuous friend of popular edu- 
cation. President Edgerton made him chair- 
man of the committee. The other member 
was Dr. Joseph Ward, of Yankton county, 
long the Congregational minister at Yank- 
ton, then the founder and the president of 
Yankton College. He was the second named 
on the committee. His life had been one of 
struggle and success. Modest, generous and 
kindly, he was fully informed upon all edu- 
cational and social or public questions, and 
more than any other man in the convention, 
he had the qualities and spirit that gave him 
ability to bring good men together and har- 
monize their actions. He had accomplished 
much in his life through these talents. It 
was not tact, not political skill, not diplo- 
macy, — it was greater than all ; it was integ- 
rity ; highest motive ; noblest, unselfish, pur- 
pose. All came to see this and it gave him 
great persuasive power. There was no 
doubting in his course. He never sold one 



36 BIOGRAPHY OF 



cause for another. He was never an extrem- 
ist or radical, but he earnestly desired state- 
hood to secure relief from much of the poli- 
tics, poor government and corruption or in- 
efficiency he had observed since he came to 
Dakota in 1868. Upon education and the 
school lands, he was most firm : there was no 
middle ground. Though Chairman Moore 
held a position of great unsefulness to the 
cause and used it wisely, it was Dr. Ward 
who helped most to finally bring the com- 
mittee to unanimity in a favorable report. 
So much is the least that ought always to be 
said of the efficiency of these two men. It 
was due somewhat at least to General Beadle 
that these two gentlemen were appointed. 

No one could in a book tell one-half of 
all the work that was done in the committee 
and among and upon the members of the con- 
vention to bring about the favorable result. 
It was not till the committee was affirma- 
tively unanimous that their report was made. 
Anything else might and probably would 
have led to a dangerous division upon the 



GENERAL BEADLE 37 



floor of the convention. There is one thing 
that has never been told, that General Beadle 
did not even allude to in his "Memoirs," that 
was finally effective in the case of a few mem- 
bers of the convention. As hereinbefore 
stated, that body was composed of various 
and even diverse elements. On some issues, 
they divided sharply. There were opposing 
leaders and parties throughout the sessions 
and some were fought out in a meeting held 
the following spring. On the school land 
question the convention probably would have 
voted adversely when it opened, but the com- 
mittee became unanimous in a favorable re- 
port and the convention adopted it by a large 
majority, almost unanimously. The favor- 
able sentiment grew in the state and influ- 
enced the members. It grew dangerous to 
oppose the measure. While the convention 
was comopsed of able, honorable and sincere 
men as a rule, there were politicians there 
and men of policy from the president of the 
body to the humblest. To two members 
whom he considered most dangerous General 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



Beadle went, near the close of the session, 
and told each privately : "The people are in 
favor of this proposition. There will be 
widespread disappointment and strong op- 
position to the Constitution if this measure 
is not included in it. More than that, I will 
take the stump and appose the adoption of 
the instrument if the ten dollar limit is not 
a part of it. It will appear to many that 
the speculators have won against the people. 
The statehood movement will then fail for 
the present and other men will do the work 
and win the honor that, with success in this, 
will come to you." He was in earnest and 
his opposition would have been successful. 
The state would have come into the Union, 
a little later possibly, but not without that 
article of the Constitution as he had written 
it. This very provision became the strong 
feature of the instrument in popular sup- 
port and a very powerful influence in both 
houses of the Congress that passed the En- 
abling Act to admit the state to the Union. 
But, there was some help secured out- 



GENERAL BEADLE 39 



side of the state. Beadle's father was at one 
time Sheriff of Parke County, Indiana. 
Young Beadle occasionally aided about the 
court room. Many prominent western law- 
yers tried cases in that court. The lad be- 
came personally acquainted with them. 
Among this class of men was Ben Harrison, 
afterwards president of the United States. 
When the school land feature of the pro- 
posed state constitution for South Dakota 
was being assailed by those who sought to 
profit by having these lands put in at a much 
lower value, General Beadle made a trip to 
Washington, D. C, and held a conversation 
with his boyhood friend. General Harrison, 
who was then a member of the United States 
senate. This conversation and the facts 
which it disclosed to General Harrison, gave 
rise to the latter's eloquent speech in the sen- 
ate in favor of the "Omnibus Bill" which 
gave us our statehood. 



40 BIOGRAPHY OF 



HONORED BY SCHOOL CHILDREN 

Fortunately, General Beadle has lived 
to see his prophecy realized. Despite the 
rapid increase in the school children of the 
state, the increase in the interest and rental 
income from the sale and leasing of our 
school lands continues to increase propor- 
tionately, so that today we still draw upon 
this fund to maintain our schools, at the rate 
of $4.50 per child. Indeed, the semi-annual 
amount apportioned to the various counties 
of the state on June 15, this year, amounted 
to over $400,000. General Beadle's $10 per 
acre scheme has long since been vindicated; 
for, in March of last year, when the sale of 
these lands was held, some of it, in Coding- 
ton county, brought $150 per acre, or fifteen 
tiems the minimum value placed upon it 
in the constitution. The entire amount re- 
alized from the sale of these lands is ap- 
proximately ten million dollars; and when 
they are finally all disposed of, the amount 



GENEREL BEADLE 41 



will be approximately one hundred and 
twenty-five millions. This amount if loaned 
at the minumum rate of five per cent, will 
produce $6,250,000. per annum, for the main- 
tenance of our schools; or, it will, in other 
words, make them self-supporting. 

The State Educational Association was 
organized in 1884. General Beadle was its 
first president three years in succession. In 
1908, at Aberdeen, the association elected 
him president of the meeting to be held the 
following November in the city of Lead. 

At the Lead meeting, in 1909, a definite 
movement was placed on foot by the associa- 
tion to erect a marble statute, life-size, of 
General Beadle, in our state capitol at Pierre. 
January 21st, following (1910), was set 
apart as ''Beadle Day." On that day, the 
teachers of all the schools throughout the 
state took up a collection to create funds with 
which to procure the statue. It was decided- 
ly a popular affair. No person was asked 
to contribute more than one dollar. School 
children were asked for but five cents. Some 



42 BIOGRAPHY OF 



tiny tots handed in their pennies. All felt 
honored to give. The amount raised was 
greatly in excess of what was needed. 

The public school exercises held on that 
day were all centered about the life-work of 
this great character. The following poems 
were sent out broadcast by the committee 
in charge, over the state and were recited 
by thousands of pupls: 

Man of vision; man of mission; 
patriot, soldier, scholar, seer; 
Man of action; man of purpose; 

duty-led in thy career. 
Forward looking ; self forgetting ; un- 
waged drudge for learning's gain. 
South Dakotans reap thy planting, 
— Gladly, too, their plaudits rain. 

— DOANE ROBINSON. 



He set his breast in long-past years 

of strife. 
Against the foes who sought the 

Nation's life. 
And when that Nation triumphed, 



GENERAL BEADLE 43 



turned his hand 

To build it greater in a desert land. 

Amid the wilderness, he helped create 

The broad foundations of a mighty 
State ; 

Founded by rugged men through 
stress and toil 

Who wrought their fortunes here on 
virgin soil. 

But he built not alone for present 
needs ; 

The future years will best reward 
his deeds 

Who saw that generations yet to be 

Must find the fount of Knowledge 
deep and free. 

The schools he fostered in their in- 
fant hour, 

Strong bulwarks of a f reeborn peo- 
ple's power. 

Like temples to his fame spread 
far and wide 

Will stand in every town and coun- 
tryside. 

— JOS. MILLS HAlSfSON 



44 BIOGRAPHY OF 



Far past life's placid noon, 
With hand and heart attendant yet 
To every call of duty, though the flesh 
Feel keenly Age's sure demit, 
This generous patriot waits 
No drowsy summons to a bed 
Of venerable slumber, but is alert, 
As when a righteous fight he led. 
Never enfeebled grows the soul 
That woos some righteous declaration. 
The hand may shrink ; the fact take on 
A statlier calm, but deviation 
From its holy creed, the enshrined 

spirit 
Flows forth a state's pure meed. 
Of love and honor, for its good 
Unsought, you gave strong heed. 
You waged a knightly battle, you 
More than all others guarded well 
A commonwealth's resources; now 
As beneficiaries, we can only tell 
Unto our precious youths the deeds, 
That told, shall not fail homage 
For thee. Thy monument firm : 



GENERAL BEADLE 45 



Childhood crowning valorous age. 

— WILL CHAMBERLAIN 



He came, when, to the outer world, 
Dakota's wealth was all unknown, 
While yet the Indian campfires curled 
Their somke wreaths skyward with 

his own. 
And for each youthful pioneer 
Whose youthful spirit sought the 

light 
He lit the lamp of knowledge here 
And kept it burning clear and bright. 
— MORTIMER CRANE BROWN. 

Other tributes paid to him on that day 
and either read by teachers of recited by 
school children throughout the state, were 
the following pertinent comments from South 
Dakotans of prominence : 

' He has confidence of all who know him 
and is most deserving of the tribute which 
the citizens desire to pay to him in the erec- 
tion in our State Capitol of a life-sized statue. 

— GOV. R. S. VESSEY. 



46 BIOGRAPHY OF 



He was dedicated by his parents to 
deeds of valor and heroic statesmanship. 
His life has been true to the just renown of 
his pioneer home. Soldier, public servant, 
educator, benefactor of our commonwealth, 
noble example of our youth, we honor his 
worth, emulate his virtues, and perpetuate 
his name to coming generations. 

— DR. F. B. GAULT, 
PRESIDENT STATE UNIVERSITY. 



General Beadle is the Horace Mann of 
South Dakota. 

— DR. ROBERT L. SLAGLE, 
PRESIDENT STATE COLLEGE. 



He poured out his life on the altar of 
education. Boys and girls of South Dakota 
should delight to honor this truly Great 
American. 

— DR. G. W. NASH, 
PRESIDENT N. N. I. S. 



GENERAL BEADLE 47 



The foresight and persistent effort of 
General Beadle for the educational re- 
sources of South Dakota should place him in 
our state hall of fame. 

— DR. S. F. KERFOOT, 
PRESIDENT DAKOTA WESLEYAN. 



I have daily, hourly, evidences of his 
great ability and grandeur of character. 

— ^DR. J. W. HESTON, 
PRESIDENT MADISON NORMAL 
(GENERAL BEADLE'S SUCCESSOR.) 



The boquet of his genius still prevades 
the halls of Yankton College and is an inspir- 
ation to faculty and students. 

— DR. H. K. WARREN, 
PRESIDENT YANKTON COLLEGE 



A pioneer in Dakota, not drawn by 
promises of wealth, but of opportunity for 
service; a public servant not for personal 
reward, but for the common weal ; an edu- 
cator because of his faith in youth. Upon 
this man of service I rejoice to see placed 



48 BIOGRAPHY OF 



the green chaplet before the shadow on the 
dial fades. 

— ^DR. G. G. WENZLAFF, 
PRESIDENT SPRINGFIELD NORMAL. 



General Beadle will be lovingly remem- 
bered for his large heartedness, his never 
flagging unselfishness, his eloquent champ- 
ionship of the best things in education, and 
his broad and accurate scholarship. 
— PROF. F. L. COOK, 
PRESIDENT SPEARFISH NORMAL. 



I have always felt the uplift of his 
strong personality and his lofty ideals. 

— ^DR. E. F. JORDAN, 
PRESIDENT SIOUX FALLS COLLEGE. 



He has conserved a perpetual flowing 
fountain of popular education from which 
our youth may for all time quench their 
God-given thirst for knowledge. 

— PROF. ANTHONY G. TUVE, 
PRESIDENT AUGUSTANA COLLEGE. 



GENERAL BEADLE 49 



UNVEILING OF STATUE 
On Monday evening, November 27th, 
in the lobby of the capitol building at Pierre, 
before an audience of fully one thousand peo- 
ple, occurred the unveiling of the Beadle Stat- 
ue. Hon. Doane Robinson, our state histor- 
ian, in behalf of the Beadle Memorial Com- 
mission, made the financial report which was 
as follows : 
Total collections on acct. of Beadle 

Fund $4656.20 

Total cost of statue 2500.00 

Balance 1920.52 

Accrued interest 154.26 

On hand Nov. 27, 1911 2074.78 

President Swanson then read a telegram 
which had been received from the delegate 
appointed by the North Dakota Educational 
Association, President McFarland of the Val- 
ley City Normal School which was as follows: 
"Valley City, N. D., Nov. 27, 1911. 
President State Educational Association, 
Pierre, S. D. 



50 BIOGRAPHY OF 



Unexpectedly prevented from being 
present at unveiling exercises representing 
North Dakota Association, but want you to 
know that North Dakota congratulates her 
sister in splendidly recognizing the services 
of her noblest citizen the nestor of educa- 
tion in the Dakotas Gen. W. H. H. Beadle." 

Prof. Geo. M. Smith, of our State Uni- 
versity, Editor of the South Dakota Educa- 
tor, then delivered his masterly address on 
the subject, "The Work and Place of the 
Teacher in Modern Life." Professor Smith 
said in part: 

"The occasion that calls us together to- 
night is a remarkable one. Many times in 
the world's history have men met to do hon- 
ors to soldiers and statesmen, poets and 
philosophers, priests and kings, but only sel- 
dom has a statue been erected to express the 
love and veneration of the people for the 
man who has given his life to the service 
of education. 

A change is taking place in the world's 
thought. Soldier, priest and king are fading 



GENERAL BEADLE 51 



into oblivion and the humble teacher, the 
servant of peace, the benefactor of human- 
ity, is beginning to take place as the com- 
ing leader, as the future hero of humanity. 
Overlooked and neglected through all ages, 
the stone that the builders rejected is be- 
coming the head of the corner." 

H: « H« H; H: 

Real education seeks to bring about 
that harmony of all the powers which is the 
essential nature of the perfect soul. What 
is the ideal man but a soul all of whose pow- 
ers are brought into harmony with one an- 
other ; and what can heaven be but the social 
harmony of a multitude of such souls? This 
was the argument of Plato in the Phaedo, 
the teaching of Jesus in the gospels. Not 
physicial strength, not personal beauty, not 
intellectual power are the real essential qual- 
ities of the true man but the strength, beau- 
ty and grace of soul that marks his highest 
and noblest development. Jesus of Nazareth 
in this respect typified the ideal man. The 
teacher must be an idealist, not realist. Only 



52 BIOGRAPHY OF 



as he has a vision of the true, beautiful and 
the good can he attain his highest influence 
and exert his highest power. 

And there are thousands of teachers do- 
ing just this work, taking just this task for 
their mission. Man is only saved by vicari- 
ous atonement and the teacher is offering 
himself as a sacrifice for the benefit of the 
race. The time will yet come when his work 
will be understood, his sacrifice appreciated 
and when men will pay tribute to his service. 

One of these teachers lived in one of our 
Western states. Devoted to her work, with 
high ideals, her lips were touched with coals 
from the altar fires of learning and her en- 
thusiasm became an inspiration for others. 
A simple Quakeress, she sought neither honor 
nor distinction and desired only to do her 
duty as priestess at the shrine of education. 
A youth who came into the magic circle of 
her influence felt the firey touch of her spirit 
and his soul kindling responsive to it became 
filled with her enthusiasm. He determined 
to devote himself to the same calling as the 



GENERAL BEADLE 53 



woman who had filled his soul with the di- 
vine afflatus. That boy became the man 
whom we honor tonight and whose life in 
South Dakota has brought the same inspira- 
tion to hundreds of her sons and daughters. 
This is not only a monument to him it is also 
a monument to her the teacher who brought 
him under the magic spell and as long as the 
name of Beadle shall be read on it, it shall 
also testify of the unknown teacher who cre- 
ated in him the love of learning that has 
made him what he is. 

Then this monument that expresses the 
love and veneration of the state stands as a 
mute but eloquent witness of the manhood 
of the teacher, to his influence for good; to 
his success in saving for the boys and girls 
of South Dakota the magnificent patrimony 
that wise foresight had destined for them. 
Let it stand as a reminder to every legislator 
and to every governor that the teacher is a 
power in the land. Let it stand as an elo- 
quent witness of what a teacher has done 
and what a teacher can do. 



54 BIOGRAPHY OF 



Yet his great achievements are not writ- 
ten in the public records. They may not 
consist in saving for the schools public lands, 
great and honorable as that service may have 
been. They are wirtten in the hearts of 
those who have come under the influence of 
his life. Like the "little quaker lady" who 
was his teacher he has known how to in- 
spire others. All over these prairies are 
those who can say of him as he of her ; "What 
I am I owe to my teacher, to the magic of 
his life, to the vitalizing power of his in- 
struction." 

Unlike most men and unlike most teach- 
ers he has lived to see his services recog- 
nized before he has passed from the scene of 
his labors. He has lived to hear the plaudits 
of a grateful people and approaches the end 
of life as the poet wished, "like one who 
wraps the drapery of his couch about him 
and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

The material part of General Beadle's 
work is well nigh done but the intellectual 
and the spiritual will remain forever. It 



GENERAL BEADLE 55 



will persist when these prairies shall have 
passed away and this river shall have ceased 
to flow. We may well count him happy to 
look back on a life of prolonged activity, a 
life of successful labor, a life of long con- 
tinued usefulness. Well may the words of 
the poet be applied to him. 

*Count no man happy till he gain 
The summit of his life and sees 
The kingly sun upon his knees 
Invoking blessings on the plains 
Till victor of that farther slope 
He backward views the far ascent 
With honest pride and just content 
Before his eyes the years unroll, 
A web of dreams, a moving show ; 
The generations come and go — 
The heavens are opened like a scroll. 
Too wise for doubts too safe for fear 
Before God's altar place he stands. 
And offers in his unstained hands 
The gift of fourscore manly years.' " 



Not only did the people of South Dakota 



56 BIOGRAPHY OF 



delight to do him honor, but paeons of praise 
were sounded to him across the continent. 
On Thanksgiving Day, 1911, the Rev. T. L. 
Fisher, rector of St. Mark's church, Leo- 
minster, Massachusetts, in his Thanksgiving 
sermon, said: "While living in South Da- 
kota, a year ago, the privilege of conversing 
with General W. H. H. Beadle, on questions 
of education and discipline, orderliness and 
authority, was an education within itself. 
The state of South Dakota is foremost in 
honoring its distinguished civilians in their 
life-time, by erecting a statue of General 
Beadle in their state Capitol, and giving him 
the title, *Dean of Education,' for his splen- 
did services in laying the foundation of her 
well-balanced school system." 




GENERAL BEADLE, TODAY 



GENERAL BEADLE 57 



PERSONAL 

General Beadle is a Thirty-third degree 
Scottish Rite Mason. He was married soon 
after the close of the Civil War to Ellen S. 
Chapman, a descendant of Moses Rich, a dis- 
tinguished soldier of the Revolutionary War. 
Their only child, a daughter, is married and 
lives in California. Mrs. Beadle died in 
1897, and left the General to spend his de- 
clining years in solitude. 



58 BIOGRAPHY OF 



LAYING CORNER STONE, STATE CAP- 
ITOL. 

Correlated to the question of General 
Beadle's statue in our capitol, is the laying 
of the corner stone of that magnificent struc- 
ture, in 1908, by Genreal Beadle himself. 

As the curtain rises and reveals our ter- 
ritorial and state history, the writer con- 
scientiously believes that there has never 
been enacted within our state a scene so tre- 
mendously imposing, so irresistably inspir- 
ing, as the one enacted at Pierre, on June 
25, 1908, of this grand old warrior of the 60's 
— ^this educator of a half century — strong, 
masculine, seventy years of age, still in pos- 
session of his wonderful mental faculties and 
of his powerful basso voice that rang out 
above the din of battle during our civil strife 
and commanded batillion after batillion of 
bleeding men to rush forward to the firing 
line again and again for the preservation of 
our common country — standing on the base 



GENERAL BEADLE 59 



of the first story of our new capitol building, 
drenched in perspiration, with uplifted 
hands and a bouyant soul, delivering in tones 
sufficiently audible to be heard several blocks 
away his masterful dedicatory address which 
will be read and re-read, with increasing 
delight, by South Dakotans for years to 
come. In the back part of this book the ad- 
dress has been preserved in its entirety. It 
is so rich in state and in national history 
that all should read it. 

The corner stone of the Capitol building 
of South Dakota was laid at Pierre, on 
Thursday, June 25th, 1908, at 3.30, p. m., at 
the time appointed by and under the auspices 
of the State Capitol Commission, Governor 
Coe I. Crawford, chairman. 

The Corner Stone is a four feet cube of 
Ortonville granite, beautifully polished, 
moulded and engraved with the Coat of Arms 
of the State. It is placed at the Southwest 
corner of the structure. 

It was laid with elaborate and impres- 
sive cerem.onial by the Grand Lodge of Ma- 



60 BIOGRAPHY OF 



sons of the State under Grand Master Joseph 
J. Davenport. 

The Chairman of the Commission then 
introduced Gen. W. H. H. Beadle, of Madison, 
S. D., as one honorably connected with the 
early history of the Territory and State, 
whose work was written in the institutions 
and Constitution of the State, who then de- 
livered the following oration: 
'*Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fel- 
low Citizens : 

The impressive services and the solemn 
ceremonial that attend the laying of this 
corner stone of the beautiful Capitol build- 
ing that rises here, the presence of the dis- 
tinguished officers and representatives of the 
state of South Dakota and its people, mark 
an occasion of singular dignity and import- 
ance in the history of our commonwealth. 
It is the first event of its kind in the annals 
of our state, and this gives it a significance 
that no repetition can well approach, how- 
ever great the consequence the state may at- 
tain. It is a landmark of most honorable 



GENERAL BEADLE 61 



progress, a celebration of success splendidly 
won, and a high pledge for the responsible 
future that awaits us. 

After an eventful period of territorial 
dependence and training, after nineteen 
years of full membership, in the federal un- 
ion, the beautiful ensign of which floats over 
us today, we have now reached the maturity 
of manhood in development, and here erect 
the beautiful edifice that shall stand as the 
representative of the majesty of our com- 
monwealth in liberty, in law, in justice, in 
equal rights and popular government and 
all the institutions that adorn the American 
state, founded in the intelligent will of a free 
people. The people of the whole state, with- 
out exception of race, party or creed, turn 
with interest and delight to the event of this 
hour. They look back with pride upon the 
worthy past, they feel the joy of civil ad- 
vancement and material prosperity in the 
present, and catch a still higher inspiration 
for the full promise of the future. It is 
well that we today render thanks to the 



62 BIOGRAPHY OF 



Great Architect of the Universe who has 
shown us this delightsome land and gives us 
such hope for the achievement of the future 
while "Under God the People rule/* 

The general scene about us is filled with 
reminiscence and suggestion. It is the cent- 
ral point, the earliest occupied by white man 
for trade and conference with the native 
races that held all the region northwest, 
from the Mississippi. All present who are 
of full middle age remember when, after 
years of territorial life, the region about us 
was all Indian land. At this point on the 
river, Lewis and Clark, the Astor expedition, 
Manuel Lisa, the Chouteaus, General Clark, 
Fremont and Nicollet and many others met 
and traded or made terms with the Indians. 
Your speaker was upon the site of Pierre 
thirty-one years ago when it was Napoleon's 
ranch, the home of the French half blood. 
Early in the spring of 1862 the first hostile 
act of the Sioux in the war of the outbreak 
was committed at this point against a steam- 



GENERAL BEADLE 63 



boat that brought goods and federal agents 
for their welfare. 

From the first settlement in America 
until this year there had been a constant 
borderland of danger and daring for the 
whites, and they have steadily pushed it 
westward till it is now disappearing in West- 
ern South Dakota. This frontier continual- 
ly removed, reappearing and again overcome 
is one of the remarkable features of our 
history and its trials have developed our 
character and broadened our sympathy and 
our democracy. The gleam of gold drew the 
hardy adventurers to the enchanted hills on 
our western limits and stimulated the con- 
quest by the industry of our race of every 
part beyond the great river that flows by. 
Where all this wilderness was, we now see 
the highways of commerce spanning the Mis- 
souri wth its great steel bridge, and its trains 
carrying the increasing numbers and trade 
of our people. 

But scenic change, reminiscence and 
sentiment, however strongly they press upon 



64 BIOGRAPHY OF 



our attention, can not adequately reflect the 
importance of this occasion, which is but one 
point in the progress of the world that has 
made possible the foundation of this great 
free state in the middle of the Missouri val- 
ley. The onward sweep of the ages, like the 
''strides of Homer's gods through space," 
moved from point to point, and Providence, 
working in history, left a great freedom 
loving race of Teutonic people occupying 
Northwestern Europe. 

To branches of this people was left the 
happy fortune of developing and bringing 
to our shores nearly every element that 
makes admirable our civilization and our 
government. Later the most numerous rep- 
resentatives of the Celtic family followed in 
great numbers and brightened our mental 
and social life by wit and eloquence, and led 
the way along our earlier border. Without 
them we would not have had Daniel Webster, 
Sergeant S. Prentiss and many others of our 
brilliant orators. Later still another branch 
of the Teutonic race, the Scandinavians, 



GENERAL BEADLE 65 



largely helped to people the Northwest and 
give character and sturdy enterprise to our 
state. 

The Teutons inherited from the past the 
art, the learning, and the philosophy and 
culture of Greece; the great gift of Rome 
in law and central government, the religion 
of Palestine. Adding all these, they developed 
undimished their own personal liberty, their 
sense of individual independence, their local 
self government, the high honor in which 
they held woman and the purity and sacred- 
ness of their domestic relations. 

In England all these elements best unit- 
ed and in time built up and limited the pow- 
ers of the central government, established 
more fully local government and, to a high- 
er degree than elsewhere in the world, per- 
sonal rights and political liberty with re- 
ligious freedom. Uder their protection as 
an island she was saved from the evils of 
the continental states. When the revolu- 
tion was completed in 1689 her dominant 
passion became that of liberty, and a writer 



66 BIOGRAPHY OF 



says, ** England was free ; indeed she was the 
only free nation in the world." At the be- 
ginning of this final advance by England, 
America had been discovered and lay untak- 
en until this most propitious moment when 
every great issue was raised. Then in sev- 
eral Chartered Colonies the whole body of 
her people's high desires, of her Magna 
Charta, and, later of revolution, was trans- 
ported to America; from an island to a great 
continent, where all that was best was em- 
phasized and strengthened. The ideas rap- 
idly advanced and outran their development 
at home. Finally the United States became 
the leader for all the world in free represen- 
tative government and the highest aspira- 
tions of the race. 

The states of the American union be- 
gan in these colonies. In Virginia the first 
free legislative assembly of the world was 
chosen. For Massachusetts the first formal 
constitution was made in the cabin of the 
Mayflower, a social compact. All New 
England developed local self government. 



^^B ^?^ 
1 


^1 



STATUTE OF BEADLE 
State Capitol, Pierre, S. D., Unveiled Nov. 27, 1911 



GENERAL BEADLE 67 



The legislatures of the colonies secured their 
reforms by including them in the acts grant- 
ing the salaries of the governors, and in peti- 
tion, remonstrance and law. A wonderful 
training was thus given to the men who later 
signed the Declaration of Independence and 
framed the federal constitution. 

T^'ortunately it was for us and all the 
west and northwest that a body of Massa- 
chusetts veterans of the revolution organized 
to settle in the region northwest of the Ohio 
river, and planned to purchase from the Con- 
p-ress of the Confederation more than a mil- 
lion acres of land, if the laws and institutions 
of the new country were made satisfactory. 
After preliminary resolutions by Thomas 
Jefferson setting forth the wise principles by 
which the territory should be treated and 
made permanent members of the federal un- 
ion the congress of the Confederation, under 
the leadership of Manasseh Cutler, passed, 
by the unanimous vote of all the states rep- 
resented, the immortal Ordinance of 1787, 
alike famous for the wisdom, forethought 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



and statesmanship of its provisions and the 
great results that flowed from its adoption. 

Its purpose was not temporary ; its prin- 
ciples were for all time and all circumstances, 
ilt was the greatest charter of free govern- 
ment ever granted to any people. This has 
been substantially the model for all subse- 
quent territorial government except in the 
matter of slavery, and its provisions have 
been specifically applied to subsequent ter- 
ritories, including Dakota. 

Six of its great provisions were made 
"Articles of compact between the original 
states and the people and the states" and 
some of them are now compacts between 
South Dakota and the Nation. After the 
lapse of nearly a century and a quarter every 
feature seems wise and we could desire none 
omitted or changed. The first provided for 
the freedom of worship; the second was a 
comprehensive bill of rights ; the third should 
ever be given in its own words: "Religion, 
morality and knowledge being necessary to 
good government and the happiness of man- 



GENERAL BEADLE 69 



kind, schools and the means of education 
shall be ever encouraged;" the fourth de- 
clared that the states to be formed from the 
territory should remain permanently in the 
nation and share its obligations. The fifth 
fixed the number of states to be formed 
from it. The sixth also should be given in 
its own language: "There shall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said 
territory, otherwise than in the punishment 
of crime whereof the party shall have been 
duly convicted." Fellow citizens! it is his- 
tory that this ordinance thereby in effect pro- 
vided for the extinction of slavery in the 
United States and the free men trained 
under it bore the most honorable part in 
saving the Nation. 

Thomas Jefferson is given the chief 
credit for this famous document, and a great 
writer has declared that "For him it consti- 
tutes a claim to immortality superior to the 
presidency itself." 

The first congress under the constitu- 
tion resanctioned the ordinance and fixed the 



70 BIOGRAPHY OF 



details and officers of the government. The 
constitntional covention was in session 
when the ordinance was adopted, and this en- 
actment stands as the greatest legislative act 
in our history and is second only to the con- 
stitution in importance. Thus by this Magna 
Charta of the northwest, were freedom, edu- 
cation, religious and civic liberty planted 
and protected in these and other territories 
of the northwest and many of the elements 
of their greatness are due to these principles 
that are destined to live forever. While 
these compacts are kept the wheels of time 
will never be turned back. They have given 
the entire west the most invaluable blessings 
of individual and general liberty and pros- 
perity. 

To say new and valuable things upon 
an occasion like this is impossible, such has 
been the general uniformity of territorial 
forms of government and of state making. 
The same system has been followed in all. 
The United States controlled more decided- 
ly at first and less so in later territories, as 



GENERAL BEADLE 71 



in each one the federal government gave 
more aid and less restriction as the terri- 
tory advanced. 

This was according to the democratic 
growth of the nation. When our long bord- 
er line of occupation passed over the Alle- 
ghanies and extended into the Mississippi val- 
ley the new states became more democratic 
in policy and government than the old, and 
the nation changed in this respect. This af- 
fected favorably the territories farther on. 
Western presidents better understood the 
new western communities. It was the ques- 
tion of slavery that varied the issues arising 
in territorial administration. The greatest 
change otherwise felt in territories was from 
new administrations at Washington, whether 
in the same party or to another. "To the 
victors belong the spoils" was a rule applied 
for half a century only a little less fully in 
the former than in the latter case. Whether 
there were capable and worthy men in the 
territory, as no doubt there were, in most 
cases from the first, the territories chose no 



72 BIOGRAPHY OP 



members of the electorial college. It there- 
fore happened that strangers, wholly ignor- 
ant of the territories, their people and their 
needs were appointed to the highest posi- 
tions. Executives and judges familiar with 
the people and the laws were removed to 
make room for new political favorites. 
Take such distinguished men as William 
Henry Harrison of Indiana Territory, and 
General Lewis Cass, of Michigan Territory; 
men who had fought together to win the 
Northwest from British and Indians, and 
compare them with some predecessors and 
successors. John H. Mason, of Virginia, 
wholly without knowledge of the country and 
people, was made Secretary of Michigan. 
Leaving the territory upon private business, 
he secured, upon his own request as a polit- 
ical favor, the naming as his successor, his 
son who had not reached his mayority. 

When the successor to Greneral Cass as 
governor was not for some time appointed, 
this boy secretary also played as boy govern- 
or. In the case of Utah, Brigham Young was 



GENERAL BEADLE 73 



territorial governor. President Buchanan 
in 1857 appointed a successor and Young re- 
fused to give up the office and called out the 
militia to support him. A strong force of 
federal troops was sent and compelled obed- 
ience. They were forbidden to enter the ter- 
ritory and their supply trains were burned. 
California became a state without territorial 
life. Such are but a few striking events in 
territorial government, not mentioning those 
in Kansas and elsewhere due to the slavery 
issue. 

Compared with many, Dakota Territory 
was fortunate in the main, and, with rare 
exceptions, the executive and judicial offi- 
cers appointed to it by the presidents were 
men of character and ability. Such an ex- 
perienced executive as William A. Howard 
would have been a credit to any state in the 
union. Our second governor, the late New- 
ton Edmunds, was appointed by president 
Lincoln, from among our citizens, in a most 
trying time and his services form an honored 
chapter in our early history, and he lived 



74 BIOGRAPHY OF 



long a revered and respected citizen. 
Hon. J. P. Kidder was an early settler, later 
a judge and delegate. Hon. George H. 
Hand, a soldier of the union, was an 
early settler and was appointed to sev- 
eral positions of trust and served eight 
years as Secretary and was for some 
time acting governor. In all his life and 
duties he is held in high honor by our people. 
Later the choice fell upon our citizens more 
frequently and the late Hon. G. C. Moody, 
and after him our distinguished citizen, Hon. 
Bartlett Tripp, reflected great credit upon 
our territorial judiciary. Several of those 
appointed from the outside were promoted 
by our suffrage to high position; such as 
Hon. S. L. Spink, and Hon. Granville G. Ben- 
nett. Hon. A. C. Mellette, an appointee to 
a less important office, was made territorial 
governor and immediately chosen by the new 
state as its first governor. 

So it may be repeated that not only did 
all territorial government improve as the 
nation grew older, but our own advanced 



GENERAL BEADLE 75 



generally in honor and efficiency toward 
statehood, as our people increased greatly in 
numbers and admirably in talent, high aim, 
and devoted purpose toward the same end. 

It happened that I was there when 
Deadwood was destroyed by fire September 
27th, 1897, and saw all that fearful night 
and the sweeping ruin. Just after that and 
while embers were still glowing in the base- 
ments and the whole site was piled with ashes, 
I saw the people of Deadwood assemble in a 
great town meeting. The titles to real estate 
were imperfect. The fire had destroyed all 
public records. The town had been built up- 
on placer land. Some mining right might 
assert its priority. But the assembled man- 
hood of the city there unanimously resolved 
and pledged their honor that every posses- 
sary privilege and right of occupancy exist- 
ing when the fire began should be made good 
and held and defended inviolate as before. 
The most honored citizen and the most aban- 
doned man or woman should have their 
rights. That was made good. Then I looked 



76 BIOGRAPHY OF 



up the valley and there, where the two gulch- 
es joined, stood two prominent land marks, 
a Church and the Schoolhouse of the town, 
untouched by fire. I cannot express the joy 
I felt and the enthusiasm it kindled as I wit- 
nessed this great act of self government and 
law making and these symbols of the future. 
Such was the Territory of Dakota in its re- 
mote mining camps. Not one soldier was 
sent there or required, and I am happy to 
recite this story in the presence of so many 
representatives of "the Hills" present and 
participating in this act here today. 

Railroads increased rapidly, prosper- 
ity prevailed. The Black Hills, upon our 
western border filled with enterprise and 
many men of brilliant ability went along 
with the daring miner. The time had come 
for statehood. The full measure of success 
under territorial limitations had been 
reached. There has not been in any territory 
a more splendid record of an intelligent and 
free people working out the basis for an 
honorable future than ours from 1879 to 



GENERAL BEADLE 77 



statehood in 1889. The best elements in the 
territory led. It was a struggle upon the 
highest line of political and moral purpose. 
The convention at Canton, June 21, 1882, 
was the worthy beginning and was followed 
by a great delegate convention at Huron, 
June 19, 1883, which comprised the charac- 
ter and leadership of all the proposed state. 
By an ordinance of this convention a con- 
stitutional convention was elected and met 
at Sioux Falls, September 4, 1883. An ex- 
cellent constitution was framed but the con- 
gress denied the claims for statehood. The 
legislature of the whole territory authorized 
a constitutional convention for South Dakota, 
which met at Sioux Falls on Sep. 8, 1885, and 
framed the constitution substantionally as 
it now stands. Still statehood was delayed 
four years more. But the whole southern 
half was now aroused and without respect 
to party or creed struggled for the desired 
goal. North Dakota soon fully consented 
and desired statehood for itself. It enjoyed 
the benefits of our work and adopted or ad- 



78 BIOGRAPHY OF 



vanced the best elements of our constitution. 
Finally by the enabling act of Feb. 22, 1889, 
statehood was authorized for both. Our con- 
vention began its session July 4th, 1889. The 
constitution of 1885 had been again adopted 
at the May election and the convention had 
little to do except to name the state South Da- 
kota, arrange for the division of the prop- 
erty and accept certain requirements made 
by congress. 

Accordingly on the second day of Nov., 
1889, President Benjamin Harrison an- 
nounced the admission of South Dakota to 
the federal union upon an equal footing with 
the other states. 

The same day all of its civil machinery 
was set in motion. The people had become 
attached to the constitution. It provided 
a just, economical and good government. So 
loyally did the people adhere to it that it 
was difficult to persuade them to make need- 
ed amendments. It was simple, free and a 
protection to all rights. The article upon ed- 
ucation and school lands became and has con- 



GENERAL BEADLE 79 



tinued to be one of the most popular pro- 
visions of the instrument. So strongly did 
we urge that upon congress that it required 
like provisions as a compact in the consti- 
tutions of other states, and North Dakota, 
Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, and 
Oklahoma enjoy this protection because 
South Dakota voters stood loyally and with 
persistent selfdenial for this measure, the 
most extraordinary change from previous 
practices by new states in the history of our 
country. 

The statehood was attained through 
merit. Our people by their enterprise, in- 
dustry, high character, good laws and gov- 
ernment, under territorial limitations had 
convinced the nation that they deserved well 
at its hands. From the early days they had 
met splendidly every trial. They had formed 
a provisional government till appointed offi- 
cers came to their duties, and most gallantly 
defended their homes and settlements from 
hostile Indians. For some time most of the 



80 BIOGRAPHY OF 



men were under arms, and for periods nearly 
all. 

From the first good laws had been enact- 
ed. The legislation was creditable as were 
the men who did it, and after 1877, we had a 
body of laws, the codes for that year, better 
than any territory ever had. The laws 
were enforced, peace and good order pre- 
vailed and all the institutions of a free 
American people were planted and developed. 
Churches rose in town and country; school 
houses were the most common landmarks in 
the settlements, and education was the high- 
est pride of the population. It was such a 
people that made the state. All the con- 
ventions were composed of able and most 
worthy and capable representatives of such 
free, intelligent and enterprising inhabit- 
ants. 

This audience coming upon railroads 
connecting every part of the state, with 
cities, villages and towns on every hand, 
and wealth and abundance throughout, with 
all the advance in science, inventions, the 



GENERAL BEADLE 81 



arts, education, commerce, travel, social de- 
velopment and comfort and the rightful 
pleasures that all now enjoy, can hardly place 
itself in the position of the men and women 
of the territorial days. We cannot think or 
experience as the people then did, or ap- 
preciate their struggles, their trials, their 
hardships. Yet those faithful people made 
all this possible, tested soil and climate and 
developed the resources, founded all the in- 
stitutions and made the organized state. In 
their poverty they unselfishly saved the 
school lands to you and the future. 

As the boy looks toward manhood, as 
he tests his increasing powers and feels in- 
creasing responsibility, so the territory al- 
ways looked toward statehood. The people 
were steadily feeling their way toward a 
more definite future. They were forming 
ideals of the state that was to be. The peo- 
ple of those days were self-respecting citizens, 
intelligent, accustomed to govern themselves, 
accustomed to organizing movements, and to 
direct events. Two-thirds of the work that 



82 BIOGRAPHY OF 



is now the honor and pride of the state was 
done by them. They laid the foundations 
of civil institutions; of religious, education- 
al and social life. A common high purpose 
arose out of earlier divisions and error. 

The women of those days were most 
worthy. They helped to build the sod house 
and worked through summer and winter to 
make and keep the home. Their houses 
were often lonely and far from neighbors 
and they were without one of the dearest 
privileges of women, the society and help- 
ful relations of woman. It is not singular 
that in some of the mountain states where 
women share even more trials and dangers 
with the men, they were given the suffrage 
as a deserved franchise. The survivors of 
those pioneers are worthy of more honor and 
praise than they have received. 

To them and their associates, now passed 
over the great divide, it was given to de- 
velop the sturdy qualities of American man- 
hood and womanhood and upon this new soil 
to create institutions, laws and material de- 



GENERAL BEADLE 83 



velopment, that are enduring evidences of 
their worth. With the many thousands that 
continually joined them, by patriotic sent- 
iment and faithful toil, they left a record to 
be emulated, and made the state of South 
Dakota that will preserve perpetually the 
principles upon which our government is 
founded. Their effort and devotion has con- 
tinued to hold the state to a course of high 
integrity and moral duty. I pity those who 
were capable who did not participate in that 
great work. Only the short sighted politi- 
cian will forget that old and strenuous senti- 
ment or go contrary to its principles. 

From this view many events in our his- 
tory might be explained. People that par- 
ticipate in a great political movement, or 
act of high merit, become more attached to 
its principles as it endures, and it influences 
all their course. 

The state which they made politically, 
morally and materially stands today a glo- 
rious credit to their worth and labor. In all 
its history there is nothing seriously to re- 



84 BIOGRAPHY OF 



gret. Its future is filled with high prom- 
ise. From the first it received a population 
of high merit. Side by side came the native 
Amreican, the Scandinavian, the Irishman, 
the German, the Dutchman, and other ele- 
ments, each the best of its kind. 

All have become American in spirit, in 
loyalty, and in honorable usefulness. Unit- 
ed they go forward in developing our wealth 
and supporting our free institutions. This 
gratifying progress and harmonious develop- 
ment will continue more and more to invite 
the most desirable additions to our state. 
Wealth will be produced and attracted as it 
has been, and the marvelous productions of 
our fields, our mines, and our shops will 
more rapidly increase. 

In the early days the federal govern- 
ment was very important to us. Now the 
state is our absorbing interest. We are 
still a loyal and a glad part of the sovereign 
nation, but constantly the state becomes more 
and more to us and its importance cannot be 
overestimated. It has all those vast powers 



GENERAL BEADLE 85 



not delegated to the nation or forbidding to 
the state by the constitution or reserved to 
the people. How vital are these interests 
and issues. President Garfield said: "The 
state government touches the citizen and his 
interests twenty times where the national 
government touches him once. For the peace 
of our streets and health of our cities; for 
the administration of justice in nearly all 
that relates to the security of persons and 
property, and the punishment of crime; for 
the education of our children and the care of 
the unfortunate and dependent citizen; for 
the assessment and collection of much the 
larger portion of our direct taxes, and for the 
proper expenditure of the same ; for all this, 
and much more, we depend upon the honesty 
and wisdom of our state legislature and not 
upon the congress at Washington." Nearly 
all the great reforms that we praise in Eng- 
land have been, or are, the proper objects of 
our state. There is no service in the world 
more honorable than that for our state. 
Vast beyond reckoning are the human in- 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



terest that center here, social, political, eco- 
nomic, educational, industrial, moral. So 
rapidly do they develop and increase that ac- 
count cannot be made of them. 

The stream of human life flows on, var- 
ies and broadens, and the state, by its policy 
and laws, is the great common exchange and 
agency that influences all, protects all. There 
is no room for cheap politics in such a field. 
There is need for highest intelligence in the 
people and their chosen leaders, if freedom 
is to be preserved, if religious liberty is to 
remain secure, if the right education of all 
is to be prom.oted, if general prosperity is 
to be continued and fairly shared by all, if 
the bane of reckless socialism is to be kept 
out, and civil liberty and political rights for- 
ever guaranteed. 

The state in its present form was a 
gro^vth originating in the principles of Eng- 
lish institutions planted in the several col- 
onies and in the race instinct for local self 
government. The nation and state have had 
continuous development and advancement 



GENERAL BEADLE 87 



ever since and must forever have. The 
famous ordinance of 1787 and our principles 
of liberty and free government cannot other- 
wise have their full fruition. General Cass 
in a message to the legislature of Michigan 
Territory reiterated and amplified the doc- 
trine that political institutions whose foun- 
dations rest upon public opinion can never 
be secure unless all the people are educated. 
Public opinion to be safe must be enlight- 
ened. 

jThe advance of every free state depends 
upon the broad intelligence of its citizens. Be- 
cause we are a state, republican in form, ed- 
ucation of all the people becomes the high- 
est duty of the state. Nothing can be so 
important except the struggle for the very 
existence of the republic. The genius of the 
poorest must have equal chance with the op- 
portunity of the rich. The true state will 
not disregard the welfare of the humblest 
orphan. Our resources of farm, orchard^ 
and mine, our soils and our water supply^ 
our rocks, our clays, must be scientifically 



88 BIOGRAPHY OF 



studied and mastered; our livestock, our en- 
tire productive possibilities require a scien- 
tifically trained and educated people. As our 
population doubles and crowds our area, this 
need increases. This training should be 
masterly and broad and prepare as fully also 
for all civic and social duties. Not for wage 
earning alone, nor for money making alone, 
must we educate. All skill, all technical 
training, all science, all the industries, can 
not together, but unaided, save and develop 
all that human society and government have 
in charge for our permanent welfare. Tech- 
nology is required for the world's progress, 
but it is not all the story of man's advance- 
ment.^ 

There is another outlook on the knowl- 
edge of the world's history. Immeasurable 
has been the cost of the social and political 
institutions that make this nation and this 
state possible. 

The Institutions are the organization in 
which the industries live, the home protec- 
tion that makes them all possible. Welfare 



GENERAL BEADLE 



lies not in gain alone. Giant industries have 
become the master trusts, and skill and tech- 
nology are made their hired servants. These 
are so bound by their wages that they do not 
understand, often, the nature of the great 
social problems that the armies of labor and 
human society present today. The mastery 
of history, government, literature, philos- 
ophy ; the knowledge of all the world and its 
mutual and conflicting interests, of the origin 
and nature of human society and ''the grand 
results of time" must be the possession of 
those who are to lead us in the profound 
questions bound up in the state and national 
and international interests. 

Constitutions, wise laws, and compre- 
hensive policies do not come from civic and 
social ignorance. When our great barns 
have been builded and are full we cannot 
therefore take our ease and be secure. 

The unexpected news from the remotest 
part of the world or the labor strikes of our 
own country may make us poor in an hour. 
We live in a world, in a nation, as well as in 



90 BIOGRAPHY OF 



a state. We are neighbors of Russia, of 
China, of England, of South America. There 
are world problems that we cannot escape. 
Our factories, our farms, our shops are but 
a part of the whole. The very prosperity 
that we boast, while a blessing, is a danger. 
Beecher said: "We must educate, we must 
educate or perish by our prosperity." 

The corruption of concentrated wealth 
supplies the political issues of the day. There- 
fore there is the highest need of that thor- 
ough education that shall develop the char- 
acter and fit our people for the most faith- 
ful service in the common interest of all. I 
rejoice, but tremble when I see what is called 
predatory wealth endow great institutions 
that shall train our young people, perhaps 
to applaud and to serve it. The great, final, 
single, comprehensive aim of education and 
of the highest education is the equipment of 
men for moral leadership. I believe that all 
this should be done inside the state, that all 
scholars, all teachers and all trained citizens 
should be made by institutions within our 



GENERAL BEADLE 91 



own state. Within our borders, under our 
laws and institutions, under the discipline 
of our own conditions and inspired by our 
state pride, all this can best be done. All the 
elements of, and inspiration for it, should be 
thoroughly given in our common schools, 
from our libaries and at our firesides. Though 
I know few of them well, I would burn 
half the books in several public libaries that 
I do know to the end that the better ones 
might be read. 

The state needs men and women of 
trained minds for all the problems of life; 
not for one narrow phase alone ; men and wo- 
men whose judgment has been so developed 
that they can be free, can form opinions and 
act with prudence, serve their fellows as well 
as themselves. Out of this will come sound 
altruism, not selfishness alone. We need a 
broader outlook that can see the elements of 
social and political problems, draw just con- 
clusions and act wisely. We want scholars 
as well as scientists ; need that our scientists 
may also be scholars and our scholars scient- 



92 BIOGRAPHY OF 



ists, that we may know the political, social 
and moral state as well as the economic and 
industrial state. We need all the truth, not 
a part only. 

If the common and high school pupils 
shall elect for special gainful employment, 
so should everyone elect for worthy and in- 
telligent citizenship, be open minded, capable 
to understand, to labor and to serve the com- 
mon welfare, to promote the highest good, 
make our religion practical and hold higher 
ideals for state, nation and all society. 

We are a democracy. Democracy in- 
creases in the whole world. It is a constant 
advance. It it be not intelligent it makes 
grave mistakes. It is insistent, clamorous, 
but victorious in the right if intelligent. 
When ignorant and under absolutism it rush- 
es blindly into bloody revolution. In the 
more enlightened nations, as in England and 
America, it moves steadily forward in splen- 
did, conservative advancement and blesses 
the state and the world. 

We have no present great race question 



GENERAL BEADLE 93 



in the state, but we shall have many Indian 
citizens. There is now no dangerous per cent- 
age of illiterates, but if neglect brings that 
deficiency we shall have another issue. Al- 
ready in the south and in a few northern 
states there is disfranchisement of many. 

These are the privileges and perils of 
the democracy. lEublic opinion is the key- 
note, the inspiration of public life. Intelli- 
gence is the one great dominating ideal of 
free government. The schools of all grades, 
a free press, free public discussion, free and 
capable organization, will give the universal 
and broad enlightenment, the righteous judg- 
ment that shall save and perpetuate all that 
makes our state and nation dear to us, that 
will protect free labor, overcome class dan- 
ger, and open larger opportunities for all. 
May our splendid and loved state strive more 
perfectly and always to have every citizen 
fitted for the best service of our common 
welfare and great destiny. 

If in our haste, our fury to be rich and 
mighty we outrun the moral and educational 



94 BIOGRAPHY OF 



institutions, they will never overtake us. 
They must be kept faithfully and kept all the 
time. The future of South Dakota is in its 
own hands. Never again shall we cover all 
these plains with a fit people from a new 
immigration. The material for the future 
shall come from the homes already here. The 
older generation passes. With the laying of 
this corner stone we introduce a new age. 
The test is upon us. We must make good. 
We must make the new race better than the 
good one that other lands and older common- 
wealths gave us. It must be prepared for 
enlarged duties and responsibilities. The 
narrovv range of human life is passed. The 
vision of the future is big with problems and 
all that concerns the development of a great- 
er civilization. 

Not in great cities and wealth is true 
safety. They are the sources of graft and 
corruption that afflict us. Here and in all 
this broad west must the capable race of 
womanly women and manly men be main- 
tained; the citizenship of ability, integrity, 



GENERAL BEADLE 95 



virtue. We stand ahead of every other state 
in the Union in the vast endowment made 
for education of all kinds. Shall we sacred- 
ly preserve and wisely use this? The un- 
questionable duty of this hour is this sublime 
resolution. 

Finally: We stand in the pride of a 
sovereign state in a supreme union. The 
destiny of that union is our destiny. It is 
the strong arm that gives protection to every 
state that it may care for its vast domestic 
concerns. How the patriotic imagination 
was kindled as at San Francisco passed in 
review that great fleet, the symbol of sover- 
eignty, the pledge of safety. How we then 
rejoiced in that union stretching between the 
two oceans, that union created by the wisdom 
of Washington, the genius of Hamilton, the 
democracy of Jefferson, the matchless elo- 
quence of Webster, the profound decisions 
of Chief Justice Marshall, and the whole 
priceless legacy saved to us and the world by 
that incomparable patriot from the common 
people, Abraham Lincoln. 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



That federal government is controlled 
by the elected representatives of the people 
and the states, and uses its granted powers 
for their welfare, to guard and advance the 
prosperity of all. In the rush, almost the 
fury of the issues, there is in some minds a 
fear, for the moment, but finally the federal 
and the state powers harmoniously cooperate 
for the common good. That growing fear 
was quickly followed by an historic confer- 
ence of the states and nation at Washington 
to plan how best to conserve the resources of 
all. The student will in such a time remem- 
ber that the cause of interstate commerce 
more than any other promoted the change 
from Articles of Confederation to the Con- 
stitution, and made that the supreme law of 
the land. 

The Nation, grown now to eighty-six 
millions, of almost continental area, has 
helped the people to reclaim a vast wilder- 
ness, develop a great commerce, and spread 
personal liberty throughout the land. In 
the daily enjoyment of such blessings we 



GENERAL BEADLE 97 



hardly realize what it has given us in intel- 
lectual freedom, in religious toleration and 
in political liberty. 

It has made labor free and protects it. 
The Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham 
Lincoln freed the white laborer no less than 
the black. It is from that time that the in- 
dependence of the organized labor practical- 
ly begins. The more we progress the more 
we need the nation and its powers. There 
can be nothing oppressive in such a govern- 
ment. Under the common sense of all 
justice comes to all. 

The state will be greater in its proper 
sphere as the nation develops. Through 
universal free education the state assures the 
intelligence of all, secures the best results 
of these privileges to every person, and ad- 
ministers the affairs of the people for the 
equal blessings of all. So are we secure in 
all the intellectual and the material resourc- 
es for the state. Under Providence these 
shall bless our children's children to the 
last generation. 



98 BIOGRAPHY OF 



The great river flows by us, across our 
state from north to south. As its swift cur- 
rent moves on from narrower to wider longi- 
tudes the more rapid motion of the surface 
throws the western shore against its flowing 
waters. As one passes down the channel 
one sees the higher and more abrupt bluffs on 
the western side and the broad valleys on 
the eastern. The rotation of the earth, the 
movement of the whole solar system, and dis- 
tant Arcturus in his unknown path, cooper- 
ate in that physical Phenomenon. 

So does the providence of (Jod, moving 
in its mysterious ways through all the his- 
tory of mankind, provide for the being, the 
present welfare and the future happiness of 
our state. The issues of all time are ours. 
All the glory, the opportunity and the praise 
that is American is ours to keep and to en- 
large. 

The stone which we lay today is a four 
feet cube; the length and the breadth and 
the height thereof are equal and this sym- 
bolizes the objects for which our state is ere- 



GENERAL BEADLE 99 



ated: Intelligence, Liberty and Righteous- 
ness. 

So in the light of all the splendid 
achievements of the people of the United 
States and the blessings of their civilization, 
intelligence, liberty and law; with profound 
thanks to God for our great inheritance; in 
the name of the good people of the common- 
wealth, of their enterprise, freedom and 
moral virtue ; in the name of their high man- 
hood and womanhood, and as a great civic 
pledge for the future, we lay this corner- 
stone to the Capitol building for South Dako- 
ta. Over that dome the ensign of the Union 
will abvays fly. The state and the nation 
shall be like Roderick Dhu's banner, the 
evergreen pine, 

*Moored in the rifted rock. 
Proof 'gainst the tempest's shock, 
Firmer he roots him the ruderit blow.'" 

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Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Dale: 

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